Jhaal Muri – Kolkata Puffed Rice Snack

Jhaal muri is a popular street food snack of Kolkata. Jhaal means spices and muri is puffed rice. A long time ago, I visited my uncle in Kolkata and I still remember this mouthwatering snack. This puffed rice is tossed with potato, cucumber, tomatoes. A special blend of spices including tamarind pulp, and mustard oil are also added to jhaal muri. This is a simple yet delicious snack.

This recipe will serve 4.

Ingredients:

4 cups murmura/ muri (puffed rice)

1/4 cup fine sev (bengal gram vermicelli)

1/4 cup peanuts

1 teaspoon oil

1/2 cup potato boiled, peeled and cut into small pieces

1/2 cup tomato finely chopped, seeded

1/2 cup cucumber finely chopped

2 tablespoons green chili, finely chopped, adjust to taste

2 tablespoons cilantro finely chopped (hara dhania)

1/4 cup tamarind paste

4 teaspoons mustard oil

Spice Mix

4 teaspoons roasted cumin seeds powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black salt

1 teaspoon mango powder (amchoor)

1 teaspoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

4 slices of lemon for garnishing

How to make Bengali Jhaal Muri

Combine all the dry spices together. Set aside.

Heat a 1 teaspoon of oil in a small pan on medium heat, add peanuts and roast stirring continuously till lightly brown. This should take about 2 minutes. Set aside.

Dry roast the muri/puffed rice on medium heat for about 3 minutes. Notes: muri should not change color, they should be white but roasting gives freshness and make them crispy. Set aside.

I made it and it would have been perfect if I hadn’t used tamarind concentrate. I put in a couple heaping teaspoons of that and it was too sour. Next time I’ll just use a tiny bit or leave it out. Thank you for the delicious recipe. It was exactly what I was seeking.

Jhaal muri one of the known street food of the Bombay and Kolkata. Apart from using peanuts in bhel puri, people can add some raisins and kaju to make it tastier or what we called shahi bhel puri chat.

But I am from Kolkata and I can confirm this is not how kolkata jhal muri is made.
You dont put garam masala or tamarind pulp in jhal muri. also two main ingredients are missing -boiled black chana and pickle masala (any of your choice like mango, lime etc).